Summer Dale, 16: Cancer diagnosis revealed her life’s purpose

Just more than year ago, Summer Dale was a teenager who didn’t know exactly what she wanted to accomplish in life.

She enjoyed horseback riding, had an interest in modeling and experimented with photography. She came to love Paris after several family vacations there. And, like many teen girls, shopping and socializing with friends were among her favorite pastimes. But, according to her father, the most extraordinary thing about Summer was her genuine interest in other people’s happiness.

“I saw that kindness in her,” said Al Dale of Atlanta. “That’s what really impressed me the most.”

Then the unthinkable happened.

Summer, who was a student at Riverwood High School in Sandy Springs, was stricken with an intense pain in one of her legs, which an MRI scan later revealed had been caused by a rare form of cancer. That diagnosis provided the clarity and sense of direction that Summer had searched for most of her life.

“She found a purpose for her life that she didn’t have before,” said her mother, Lynne Dale Williams. Heartbroken at the sight of other kids battling cancer, Summer Dale founded “Team Summer,” a non-profit organization started to help lift the spirits of sick children.

Summer MacMahon Dale of Atlanta died Nov. 11 at home following a year-long battle with cancer. She was 16. A memorial service has been planned. A.S. Turner and Sons Funeral Home in Decatur is in charge of arrangements.

Team Summer raised more than $50,000 in less than a year. The organization aims to help kids cope with cancer by providing gifts that make their lives easier, from electronics such as laptops, portable DVD players and iPods to help pass the time during treatments and hospital stays, to an amusement park outing for a boy who had spent most of his short life battling the disease.

Summer told her family that cancer was a blessing because of the wonderful people and experiences it brought into her world. And, despite her own condition, she insisted on being there when the gifts were presented to patients. “She always wanted to be there to hug them,” her father said.

Lynne Dale Williams noted that her daughter had been “remarkably insecure” before the diagnosis. “She would say, ‘the only thing I like about myself is my hair.’”

And although she lost her hair after the diagnosis, her father said she refused to wear a wig. “She was proud of the way she looked and she embraced it.”

In addition to finding her purpose, Summer discovered a quality she never had before — self-confidence, which was reflected in hundreds of photos on her social media pages. She wanted her friends to know that she was not afraid of cancer.